THE rider of an off-road motorbike who hit and killed a pensioner as he crossed a road was today jailed for four years.

John Truscott, 85, died in hospital ten days after he was struck by the Honda CR250 on Meadowgate in Eston, near Middlesbrough, in April last year.

Lee Wilkinson, 34, of Moorgate, Eston, admitted causing death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing at Teesside Crown Court.

He returned to court today to be sentenced alongside fellow off-road biker, David Pears, 20, of Lythe Walk, Eston, who admitted dangerous driving.

Pears was given an eight-month by Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC.

The jury bench and the public gallery in Court 2 was packed with relatives of Mr Truscott as well as the two defendants.

The court heard how the accident on April 2 came after the two men had been racing around the streets of a housing estate, doing wheelies, undertaking cars, running a red light and riding on pavements.

Following a break in their riding, Pears and two others headed off and Wilkinson was "playing catch-up" when he struck grandfather Mr Truscott.

Wilkinson had a head-cam fitted to his helmet which showed the sickening collision, as well as the pair's earlier dangerous driving - footage which was shown to the court.

Judge Bourne-Arton said: "You used a residential area as your own without any care for others. You had absolutely no thought for anyone else.

"You used the streets and pavements of a residential area as your own playground."

Mr Truscott died in James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough on April 12 last year after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

Experts calculated that in the 100m before the collision, father-of-three Wilkinson was doing an average of 46mph.

He claimed he was travelling at 30mph when he saw the pensioner, and braked, but the court heard he would have been able to stop and avoid hitting Mr Truscott if that had been his speed.

The court heard that Mr Truscott, who had been married for 49 years, was well-known in clubs throughout the North-East as a singer, and even had an agent.

Weeks before his death, he had performed on a cruise ship, prosecutor Aisha Wadoodi said.

He and his wife Geraldine had returned from a holiday in Spain just a day before the accident.

Miss Wadoodi said: "He loved the outdoors and spent hours walking around the Eston Hills and that's why they chose to live where they did with a view of the hills.

"Sadly, it overlooks the very road where the collision took place, and Mrs Truscott feels unable to look out of her bedroom window any more."

Rod Hunt, for Wilkinson, said he had a different side to his character as a crazed rider - and was a hard-working family man, who had a job as an electrical supervisor.

Wilkinson's partner gave brief but tearful evidence, and said: "He is an amazing dad. I could not ask for anything better."

John Nixon, for Pears, admitted: "His driving was completely and utterly unacceptable. There is no denying that.

"It is by the grace of God he is not standing in the shoes of his co-accused."